This week we are given an introduction to Tertullian.
Firstly we hear a little about the North-African church in general.
Then we learn about Tertullian's:
(i) birth, education and conversion;
(ii) contribution to orthodox Christianity;
(iii) the difficulty in arranging his writings chronologically;
(iv) decline into Montanism;
(v) work against Marcion;
(vi) lost works;
(vii) fragments.
I appreciated this comment from the editor: 'It seems to be the fashion to treat of Tertullian as a Montanist, and only incidentally to celebrate his services to the Catholic Orthodoxy of Western Christendom. Were I his biographer I should reverse this course, as a mere act of justice, to say nothing of gratitude to a man of splendid intellect, to whom the filial spirit of Cyprian accorded the loving tribute of a disciple, and whose genius stamped itself upon the very words of Latin theology, and prepared the language for the labours of a Jerome. In creating the Vulgate, and so lifting the Western Churches into a position of intellectual equality with the East, the latter as well as St. Augustine himself were debtors to Tertullian in a degree not to be estimated by any other than the Providential Mind that inspired his brilliant career as a Christian.'
Sounds like we owe a lot to Tertullian.
Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.
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